Could politics tarnish the memory of neurosurgeon Ben Carson's storied rise up from his bootstraps to the top of the medical field?

Last week the renowned physician, in remarks on Fox News about same-sex marriage, linked homosexuality to bestiality and pedophilia, sparking fury from different quarters, including medical students at Johns Hopkins University where he's scheduled to deliver the commencement address. He later apologized on CNN for comments he said were "somewhat insensitive," and also misinterpreted. He also offered to withdraw from the commencement speech.

But Monday, Carson was lashed out as his critics, whom he accused of wanting him to stay on the plantation. White liberals, he said, in an interview with conservative radio host Mark Levin, are "the most racist there are."

"I represent an existential threat to them. They need to shut me up, they need to get rid of me, they can't find anything else to de-legitimize me, so they take my words, misinterpret them, and try to make it seem that I'm a bigot," he said.

Egged on by Levin, who suggested that he is targeted by white liberals because he's African-American, Carson played his own race card.

"They're the most racist people there are because they put you in a little category, a box," he said.
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